The Wrath of Pan (The Inglewood Chronicles Book 2)

by Jeremy Croston

  None of this added up. “According to the legend, what does a witch have to do with the Scythe?”

  “Essentially the same thing as with Cain. The Scythe is said to be under London, in a chamber that only one with magical abilities can break. That is about the only thing that both tales have in common.”

  Liz made eye contact through the rearview mirror. “So the crypt is not here in London?”

  “On the contrary, it is far from here. The text still calls the resting spot part of the Ottoman Empire, or in present day terms, Turkey.”

  A thought crossed me. “Follow me here for a second. We assume this Hammer dude is one of the old timers, but could it be someone maybe a bit younger? Maybe one of your generation Liz?”

  Tucker cut in before Liz could answer. “My dealings have only been with Pan, but I can tell you, whoever is pulling the strings scares him. As demented as that young lad is, the Hammer can only be someone much worse.”

  “Tucker is right Vic, Pan would not scare easily. Unfortunately for us, the clues to the Hammer’s identity still elude us. Once we capture Pan, maybe we can learn more.” She focused back on the road, “For now, we need to take care of business with Roderick.”

  Each of us fell into our own thoughts. I still was trying to wrap my head around Rod’s behavior; it didn’t add up. I didn’t really care for the man, but he also didn’t seem like an irrational killer, he seemed much more calculating. The killing of the Lost Boy was an impulse murder followed by a quick cover up. If John had a backbone, it would’ve never worked.

  The problem is if Rod’s in distress, he’s not talking. It’s hard to help a person who won’t confide in anyone what’s really going on. His silence and John’s account and photographs seemed pretty damning. My intuition, however, was telling me we needed to keep digging.

  “Vic, we are almost to Markham. What shall we do with Mr. Tucker?”

  I turned around and the old man was looking out the window, that sadness still in his eyes. “I don’t trust him. He stays close to us.”

  His gaze came back to me. “I won’t be much use in a fight.”

  “Between me and you, I hope that isn’t going to be an issue.”

  Unlike Hillside that had an old rusty gate, Markham had a nice long brick driveway. Liz slowly pulled the car up to the front and parked it. Getting out, the smell of death hit me, hard. Trying not to choke, “Something’s wrong. There’s the stench of death lingering here.”

  The two vampires looked at me. “I do not smell anything. Where is it coming from?”

  I pointed to the left side of the outside. “Over there. Weapons out?” Liz nodded and held the tanto in the ready position.

  “Do you have a weapon for me?”

  Between gagging and trying not to laugh, “Hell no I don’t have a weapon for you. There’s still a decent chance you’ll stick us at first opportunity.”

  He went to respond but stopped. There was no arguing my point and as I pulled out Roscoe, I gave him one last look before we went to investigate.

  The smell was worse than rotting garbage on a hot New Mexico day. As we rounded the first corner of the huge house, it came together. A mass grave site had been recently uncovered and parts of bodies were scattered in the overturned earth. The body parts were in various stages of decomposition, making it clear that they had been here for awhile.

  “What the hell was Rod doing with all these corpses?”

  Liz didn’t say a word; instead she walked over to the grave and looked down. “Something besides the bodies was buried here.”

  “How can you tell?”

  “There is an opened box at the bottom of the pit.”

  I pointed at Tucker, “Go down there and get it.”

  “Why do I have to go down there?”

  I cocked the gun, “Because I don’t like you and I have a gun. Now hurry up, the smell is making my want to puke.”

  He gave me an annoyed look and after a moment walked over. “You owe me for this Victor.”

  “I let you live earlier, we’re even.”

  He jumped down in. I heard the noise of him trying to remove the box from the ground it was stuck in along with a few whimpers of disgust whenever a body part would hit him. “I got the box; can one of you help me out?”

  Holding my breath, I came over to the edge of the hole and reached down. One good pull and Tucker was back on solid ground. The three of us went back to the front of the house; here at least the smell was better.

  The box looked like an old chest, something like you’d see a pirate dig up in a movie. There was no lock on it, but you could see where someone hit it to break it off. Inside, there was nothing, except a black cloth bag. I picked up the bag and gave it a sniff. “Kinda smells like rusty metal.”

  I handed it to Liz who inspected it as well. “She reached in and when she brought her hand back out, there was rust residue on it. “It is not that big. I cannot imagine what Roderick was keeping here.”

  “Considering it was under a grave of dead, mutilated people, that don’t give me a warm feeling. But this can wait,” something caught my eye in the second floor window, “I think we should check out the house.”

  Liz handed me back the bag and I put it in my coat pocket. The three of us proceeded to enter the house and it was just as depressing as the last place. “What’s the point of having all these places if you let them go to hell?”

  “Pan had all the important vampires in London under surveillance. If this Roderick had these hideouts, why not use them?”

  We walked in a bit further, looking for anything that might tell us who or what had been here. Just as we were exited the front room, all the lights in the place turned on.

  Liz looked at me. “Boss lady, there are no funny smells or sounds.”

  Even as I said it, the sounds of kid’s laughing, really creepy laughing, echoed in the room. That was followed by, “I don’t think the adults want to play with us.”

  “Pan is going to be mad at you Warren! You betrayed us!”

  “The three of you won’t survive the fun!”

  Three different voices, all adolescent boys. “Tucker, what the hell is going on?”

  His face was pale, all the color drained. “These are the Lost Boys. This was a trap!”

  Before we could stop him, Tucker took off out the door. I don’t even know how far he got before a loud scream came from his direction. Liz and I ran after him, but before we got to the door, it slammed in our face.

  “You two don’t need to worry about Warren, you should be more worried about us.”

  Two kids came out of the back corner of the room, each holding a homemade knife that was stained red, probably from blood. The one of the left was a bit bigger, fatter while the one on the right was short and mousy looking. Their eyes gave away their intentions; if we wanted to live, we had to be willing to kill ‘em.

  I put away Roscoe and concentrated hard. I felt the hair on my arms growing and the nails on my hands turning into claws. Beside me, Liz’s eyes went red and her fangs fully extended. “You two think you’re tough shits? You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

  Chapter 29

  The fat one charged me, moving a lot faster than I would’ve given him credit for. As he got closer, he slashed the knife at my face a few times, missing. On his final attempt, I reached out and grabbed his wrist and bent it back, snapping it. He growled in pain and dropped the knife.

  I swiped at him a few times with my claws, but he was quick. Without his knife, he vamped out and began snapping at me with his mouth. “Hey chunky, I’m no hamburger for you to eat.”

  He didn’t find me amusing and jumped at me. The weight behind him hit me in the chest and knocked me down. Prone on the floor, the little rat began kicking me. One good kick to the ribs and then another to the face really smarted. He tried again and I rolled out of the way. His momentum from the missed kicked left him off balanced. Taking advantage, I swept his feet out from under him.

  It w
as my turn to hammer down punches. I hit him as hard as I could on the chin. Two more solid blows connected, but didn’t seem to do much good. He pushed me up and his strength easily won out. Both of us were back on our feet.

  “You’re one tough son of a bitch kid, I’ll give you that.”

  “Who are you calling a kid? I’m over a hundred years old!”

  I quick drew my gun, which was a challenge with my claws, and put a bullet in his leg. “For someone so old, you let me distract you.”

  There was a burning hole where the silver entered his leg. He couldn’t put a lot of weight on it, which unfortunately for him was a problem. I rushed him and put my shoulder into his chest. He crumpled to the floor. I cocked Roscoe back and put it up against his head. “It’s over kid.”

  His red eyes were full of anger. The hate behind his stare was nightmare quality. He went to move his arm but with my off hand, I pinned it down.

  “Don’t do anything stupid. It’s over; you don’t have to die today.” I felt the tension is his arm leave, “Good man…”

  Stupid Vic – he brought his hand up quicker than I could catch and raked my left eye. I grabbed it with my eye, blood running down from the scratches in my face. One good push and I hit the wall behind us hard. The big kid lunged at me but I emptied the five remaining bullets into him. Two buried into his heart and three to the head.

  I don’t mean to be gross, but the three silver rounds to his head caused it to pop like a watermelon. I took a deep breath as the headless kid fell to the floor, no longer a threat.

  With my Lost Boy dead, I got back up and looked for Liz. I found her in the next room over, standing behind the kid, with an old wooden table leg sticking out of his chest.

  She didn’t look worse for wear, but when she saw me, she let go of the wooden leg and ran over.

  “Are you okay?! The wounds around your eye look terrible!”

  I put my hand up, blood still coming from the wound. “It hurts like hell, but it’ll be okay. The fat one is dead too.”

  “Those boys were much more skilled than I would have given them credit.”

  “There’s still one more, probably attacked Tucker when he left the house.”

  Liz went over and picked up the tanto next to the kid’s body. “Let us finish the job.”

  We walked back out to the front door. When we exited, the night sky was starting to lift. I looked down at my watch, not believing that it was five in the morning. I heard the slight sounds of sobbing coming from in the bushes beside us. I jumped down, and I saw Warren hiding.

  “Tucker, where is the other Lost Boy?”

  He looked up at me and I saw why he was sobbing, he was missing his right hand. With his left, he pointed to the next set of bushes. Liz came over, took up position beside Tucker and I went to the next bush. Pushing it aside, the Lost Boy was lying there dead, his throat slashed by what looked to be his own knife.

  “He cut off my hand, saying it was punishment for helping you. It sent me off into a rage I never felt before. I became a daemon and killed him.”

  I imagine he vamped out for the first time. “You’ve killed before Tucker, suck it up.”

  “Not like this, never like this…”

  Liz left him to his rambling, “I am quite surprised Gregory and Jonathan are not here yet.”

  “I am too. Why don’t you give your brother a call and see what the holdup is.”

  She dialed and we waited. After a few rings, I heard it click over to the voicemail. She hung up, a worried look over her face. “Maybe they are in an area with bad reception.”

  She didn’t believe it, even as she said it. “There isn’t much else here. We got lured into a trap and whatever Rod needed, he took. We should probably go look for the others.”

  “Are you sure? You don’t think I am overreacting?”

  “No, besides we need to get Tucker someplace dark soon or else he’ll burn up. Not that I don’t think he deserves it, but until further notice, we kinda need him.”

  I walked over and grabbed the sobbing man from the bush and brought him to the car. I pushed him into the backseat and closed the door. I got in and we were off.

  Liz was quiet as she drove. Tucker’s sobbing finally stopped and I looked back and saw that he was asleep. “I guess as a new vampire, he is most affected by the sun?”

  “Yes, which is good for us as I could not take much more of his whining. The glass in this vehicle will protect him from the UV light.”

  “Will his hand be okay?”

  “I believe so. When he wakes, he will be very hungry. I guess we will give him just enough to make sure he stays alive.”

  I settled back in my seat, feeling the grossness of the blood drying on my face. The scratches hurt like a bitch, but at least the bleeding stopped. Before I could get too comfortable, I saw a car parked in a weird spot off the road. “Hey Liz, that’s weird, isn’t it?”

  She looked over and slammed on the brakes. “That’s one of Jonathan’s cars!”

  We pulled up right beside it; there was no one inside. I got out and canvassed the area as best I could. “I don’t see any signs of a struggle.”

  Liz went the other way as I, into the wooded area right behind us. I continued to look around the car, seeing if there were any signs or clues.

  “Victor! Hurry!”

  I turned around and ran as fast as I could towards Liz. When I got to her spot, I saw Gregory lying on the ground, covering up Rissa. Both looked to be out-cold. I picked up Gregory and Liz took Rissa. Carefully, we brought them back to the car and got them in the backseat.

  “They key is still in the ignition. I think the best thing we can do right now is drive back to the house.”

  If she heard me, she made no indication. Her eyes were welling up, “Where are you Jonathan?”

  “Liz, we might not be safe right now. I’ll follow you back to the house. We need to get Gregory and Rissa to safety. Once they come to, they can tell us what happened.”

  She weakly shook her head. “You are right.”

  “It’s not about being right, we need to be safe.” I gave her a kiss, “I’ll follow you. If you see anything weird, we stop okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “Good, let’s hurry. I get the very bad feeling we’re being watched.”

  Chapter 30

  When we got back to John’s house, our first order of business was to get Gregory and Rissa into bed to recover. Once that was taken care of, I put Tucker down in the dungeon. I even gave the dick a few bags of blood, that way when he woke up, he’d have something to take care of the hunger.

  I made my way into one of the living rooms and dozed off on the couch. I don’t know how long I was out, but eventually I was woken up by someone light shaking my shoulder.

  Liz spoke very softly, “I am so sorry to wake you Vic, but Gregory is coming to. I figured you would want to talk to him with me.”

  It took me a second to get the cobwebs out. “Yeah, it’d be best if we were both there.”

  I got up and stretched. It also hit me how bad I stank. A shower would be in order, and soon. When we entered Gregory’s room, he was sitting up, wincing. “How did I end up back here?” Then he started to panic, “Where is Rissa and Jonathan?”

  I pushed him back down on to the bed. “Calm down buddy, you got walloped on your head by the looks of it. Rissa’s fine, she’s over in the other room.”

  His face relaxed a little bit. “What about Jonathan?”

  Liz sat on the bed beside him, “My brother is missing. When we got to where you were, only you and Rissa were there.”

  “I know it’s hard, but can you tell us what happened?”

  He grabbed his head, “We were on our way to meet up with you two. Jonathan got a phone call and pulled off the road. While he was out talking to someone, Rissa and I were talking. I guess I got a bit relaxed, because I never saw the attack coming. I remember the car door opening, her screaming and then nothing.”

  �
�Liz, you stay here with Gregory. I’m going to go check on Rissa and talk to her.”

  “Do you not want me to come?”

  I put my hand on her shoulder. “She trusts me. Besides, it’s my fault she’s mixed up in this shit and all.”

  She put her hand over mine, “You are not in control of fate. If she was meant to be part of our world, it was not because of you.”

  “Thanks.” With that, I left the room and headed over to the adjacent room. Rissa was still out when I got in, so I took a seat in the corner chair.

  The crime scene bugged me. There was no sign of a struggle and you’d think that John would’ve tried to fight off his abductor, even if it’d been Rod. A low groan brought me back to the present situation.

  I walked over to the side of her bed, “Rissa, you okay?”

  “Where am I?” She looked around and spotted me. “Vic! Oh thank God it’s you!” She sat up and threw her arms around me.

  “I’m glad you’re okay. You and Gregory gave us a bit of a scare.”

  She went back into a sitting position on the bed, “I guess you want to know what happened?”

  “That’d be a big help. Gregory told us all he could, but something tells me you saw a bit more.”

  “We’d just pulled off the road so Liz’s brother could take a phone call. He said he had a bad signal and left the car and walked towards the trees. I would’ve thought that would make the signal worse.”

  I got out my notepad and started writing down what she told me. “Anything else strike you as strange?”

  “He seemed annoyed with whoever called him. I could tell by his body language.”

  “What happened next?”

  “Gregory and I started talking about different things. He was telling me about Seattle when the door opened. He never saw the attacker and was knocked out by a night stick.”

  As I was writing, “You saw the attacker, didn’t you?”

  “It was that Roderick. He looked crazy, his hair was all over the place and his eyes were unfocused. He pulled Gregory from the car and then grabbed me. I tried to fight him off, but it was useless.”